Thursday, 27 July 2017

July 24,
2017, Cairo – For the
fourth time, Dina Meshref, who graduated last spring from The
American University in Cairo (AUC), has become the African Table Tennis Champion, enabling her to
move on to the Table Tennis Women's World Cup, scheduled to take place in
Canada this October.“It was very important for me to win this
title in order to qualify for the World Cup,” Meshref said. “It was a huge
challenge because of the many good competitors, particularly my teammates from
Egypt and the Nigerian players.”

Meshref recently graduated this spring with a
bachelor’s in business administration and earned the Omar Mohsen Athletic
Achievement Cup for successfully representing AUC in national and international
tournaments. She participated in the women’s singles tournament at the
International Table Tennis Federation Africa Cup, held in Agadir, Morocco this
June.

The Table Tennis Women's World Cup, among the
world’s most prestigious events, invites the top 16 players according to global
rankings to compete, in addition to four continental champions. Meshref will be
representing Africa at the event as one of the continental champions who
qualify to participate. “If I’m able to win any match there, it will help
improve my international ranking, since I’ll be competing against players who
are ranked much higher than me,” said Meshref. “One of my dreams is to win a
medal at the World Cup. It’s difficult, but it’s possible, so I set this as my
target each time I qualify.”

As the daughter of two table tennis champions,
Meshref was naturally drawn to the sport. She would often accompany her father
to the table tennis hall at El Ahly Club when he served as head of the table
tennis team. Prompted by coaches to try table tennis herself, she eventually
discovered a passion for it and began playing at a young age.

In addition to earning titles as an
internationally known professional table tennis player, Meshref maintained a
good academic standing at AUC. “It was tough to manage my time, moving between
academics and playing professionally. I had to balance class with long practice
hours,” she reflected. In the past, Meshref made it to the top 16 slots at the
world cup. She hopes that this year she can make it to the top eight.